Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist

Friday E-Mail News           November 5, 2010

Services at 9:15 AM & 11:15 AM

November 7, Sunday: Sermon - Remembering Our Liberal Martyrs. Rev. Dr. Janet E. Newman. At a time when we celebrate All Souls we recognize those religious liberals of the past who have helped make us modern UUs who we are. Are their sacrifices relevant to our lives? The choir will sing.

Religious Education

Religious Education for children nursery through fifth grade is offered at both services.

Classes for sixth through twelfth grades are offered at the 11:15 AM service.

Church This Week

November 5, Friday: Cottage Conversation, 6 PM, Parlor.

November 6, Saturday: Fall ChiliFest & Silent Auction, 4 PM, All Church. How can you resist? Bring yourselves, bring your kids! Free Chili, cornbread, salad, yummy desserts & libations. Games for all ages, children’s talent show, plus time to relax and socialize. But most importantly, time to do some serious competitive bidding against your friends at the silent auction. We have added a few special last-minute items, so we now have 180 dinners, services and gift items available to bid on. Finish your holiday shopping early, ensure that your winter social calendar is full, and support TJMC programs by bidding generously. If you cannot attend the Chili Expo, e-mail your bidding info now to auction@uucharlottesville.org and we will bid on your behalf. Bids must be received no later than midnight tonight (Friday, November 6). See you at the auction!

November 6, Saturday: Children’s Talent Show! 6 PM, Social Hall.

November 7, Sunday: Daylight Savings Time Starts.

November 7, Sunday: Activity Fair, 10:30 AM+12:30 PM, Social Hall.

November 7, Sunday: Coming of Age/Challenge Marketplace, 10:30AM + 12:30 PM, Social Hall.  Poinsettia orders are being taken to support the COA pilgrimage. Beautiful plants, fabulous prices, a great cause!

November 7, Sunday: Artist Reception - Nancy Nerem, 12:30 PM, Social Hall. Living where we do, we are constantly surrounded by beautiful landscapes that speak to us, reminding us of constancy and the passing of time. Nancy hopes to capture, in a simplified and distilled form, some of these stirring images that reach our souls and somehow ground us. As a child of both an artist (Jill Payne) and an engineer, she found a path to combine their talents through her work as an architect and painter.

November 7, Sunday: Lifespan Faith Development Committee, 12:45 PM, Summit Room 2.

November 7, Sunday: AFD: Building Community Resilience in Response to Peak Oil, Climate Change, and a No-Growth Economy, Mini-green Workshop: Rainwater Harvesting, Parlor, 3:30 PM. Garnett Mellon and Martin Johnson, of the Thomas Jefferson Water and Soil Conservation District.

November 9, Tuesday: Deadline for proposals for the Winter/Spring Adult Faith Development program. We welcome your ideas for classes you would like offered, topics you would like explored, formats you want us to try. Please contact AFD Chair, Holly Dilatush, at holly@dilatush.com

November 9+23, Tuesdays: UU World Discussion Group, 6:30 PM, Green Room. Please join us! Email Holly Dilatush at holly@dilatush.com to be added to the email reminder list and if you are interested in an email discussion group. More information on the hallway bulletin board. Hope to see you soon!

November 10, Wednesday: December 2010 Monthly Bulletin Deadline for Submission. Due to the holidays the deadlines for the November and December Monthly Bulletins are early.

November 11, Thursday: Last Cottage Conversation. If you are not able to participate and you would like your voice to be heard, please use the following link to access our survey on the responsibilities of membership. We also urge those who participated in the cottage meetings to complete the survey. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tjmcmembership2010. The Membership Committee thanks everyone who has participated in this important process. A summary of the results will be reported to the Board at its December meeting and to the Congregation in the December 2010 Monthly Bulletin.

November 12, Friday: Social Action Film Night, 7 PM, Parlor. Food, Inc. (2009). This film lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing how our food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the environment, the livelihood of the American farmer, and the safety of workers. Food, Inc. reveals surprising truths about what we eat, how it is produced, and who we have become as a nation. Sponsored by the Green Sanctuary Task Force.

November 13, Saturday: TJMC-UU Fall Workday, 8 AM-1 PM, Outside. Contact Holly Hintz at hollyhg1@yahoo.com.

November 14, Sunday: Sermon - The Handwriting on the Wall. Rev. Dr. Janet Newman & Transition Team (George Jones, Pam Philips, John Semmelhack, & Betty Warner). A series of homilies based on your memories about the church’s past. Are there patterns? Unfinished business? The choir will sing.

November 14, Sunday: Sample Covenant Group, 1 PM, Summit Room 2. Are you curious about how a Covenant Group works? We will provide a light lunch and drinks. Sign up in the Social Hall this Sunday or next. New groups will be forming in mid-January and you can pick up a registration form at the Covenant Group table in the Social Hall or register on line at uucharlottesville.org.

Church Notes & Requests for Help

Stock Donations to the Church: Some members of our church choose to fulfill their pledge commitments or make other contributions to the church by donating appreciated stock to the church. This usually has income tax advantages because it may allow the donating individual to avoid being taxed on any capital gains, while also allowing a tax deductible contribution to the church. For those members that may wish to make such donations, we remind them that there is a form in the Church Office which they should fill out in order to ensure that the donation will be properly credited to them. The form also provides information concerning the brokerage account to which the stock should be donated. Finally, in order to ensure that all donations are processed and received by the church before the close of the calendar year 2010, donations should be made no later than December 10, 2010.

Scrip for the Holidays! The holidays are right around the corner- are you starting to think about holiday meals and gift giving? Plan ahead and purchase GiftCards to do your grocery and holiday-related shopping, or to give as gifts. Each time you purchase a Scrip GiftCard, TJMC is given up to 15% of its value, courtesy of participating retailers. We stock an assortment of grocery cards plus a small selection of popular shopwithscrip.com cards at the Scrip table each week, but we can also place special orders for cards for hundreds of local and online retailers through the shopwithscrip website. Our next special order deadline is midnight Monday, November 15, for delivery on Sunday, November 21. Questions? Ask at the Scrip table or write scrip@uucharlottesille.org.

Chalice Lighters Needed: Help provide funding for UU congregations in our district and you will be a “Chalice Lighter.” The Thomas Jefferson District has sent Call #153 for funds to help the UU Congregation of Columbia, SC, to help remodel and add light to their building and to replace their playground. Look for Chalice Lighter materials on the table in the foyer, see Edith Good at the refreshment counter in the Social Hall on Sundays, or contact her at 293-4044.

Adult Choir is beginning to rehearse Holiday Music! Come join us on Thursday nights at 6:45 PM in the Parlor. If you would like more information, please contact KaeRenae Mitchell at 293-8179 extension 4# or krmitchell@embarqmail.com.

The Refugee Partnership is seeking volunteers for a small group Burmese English lesson for folks who work on Thursday nights from 7-8 PM or Friday nights 7-8 PM on Michie Drive (behind K-mart.) Volunteers will help another tutor work in small groups to help parents learn basic English–including conversation, basic grammar and help with filling out job applications, etc. No experience necessary. If you are interested, please contact stewartcherry@yahoo.com. English conversation tutor needed for older Meskhetian Turkish gentleman on Wednesdays or after 4 PM on Mondays or Fridays. Contact Cherry Stewart at stewartcherry@yahoo.com.

Warm Clothing Drive! The Refugee Partnership is seeking gently used winter shirts, sweaters, scarves, hats and mittens for local refugees. We can accept sizes S and M for adult women and men and all sizes for children. Men’s pants sizes 14 boys, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 will be accepted as well as girls/women’s pants from teen sizes to women’s size 10 and all children’s pants in good condition. We are also accepting children’s books that are gently used. If you are cleaning out your closets and would like to help with this drive for the next three weeks, please contact Cherry Stewart at stewartcherry@yahoo.com.

Buy Your Groceries Online and Raise Funds for TJMC! For every family that places four orders of $100 or more by the end of 2010, Relay will give TJMC $50. RelayFoods.com allows you to shop at more than fifty area grocery stores, specialty shops, and farms on one website. Browse for staples, prepared foods, and farm-raised meat and produce, all at in-store prices. You can check out with a credit card, and they will meet you with your purchase at one of their free pick-up spots conveniently located around town. The vendor list keeps growing: Whole Foods, Revolutionary Soup, Polyface Farm, Rebecca’s, Reid Supermarket, Foods of All Nations, The Cheese Shop, Hardy Farm, Hotcakes, BreadWorks, and many more. Enter “TJUU” in the coupon code box to participate in the fundraiser.

UUSC-TJMC Holiday Card: Send a winter holiday greeting card to TJMC friends and members during the end-of-the-year holidays by contributing to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) – no postage needed. Contributions small and large are welcome and contributors’ names will be listed it he card, to be issued with the December 2010 Monthly Bulletin. Membership for adults is $40 ($75/couple); seniors 65 and over $20; students and youth $10, checks payable to UUSC. You may mail your contributions to TJMC, Attn: UUSC, or give it to Edith Good on Sundays at coffee hour. The deadline is Tuesday, November 16. See Kip Newland, TJMC’s new UUSC representative, for information about UUSC’s activities and partnerships in human rights and social justice around the world.

Grocery Store Coupons Needed for local charity: Please save newspaper coupons for ready to eat meals and single serving soups that can be heated in a microwave oven. We could use coupons for granola bars, instant cereals, individual serving fruits and other non-perishable foods as well. We are collecting them for the Interfaith Humanitarian Sanctum (IHS), a local charity that assists social workers at the UVA hospital in providing foods for families of patients who come from far away for care but who cannot afford food or housing while they are here. Sadly, need at the hospital is great, and this small action will help the IHS make their limited funds go further. You can leave the coupons at the RE table in the Social Hall on Sundays or in Leia Durland-Jones’ mailbox in the church mailroom. Thank you!

The Poinsettias are Coming! Support our Coming of Age as they raise funds ($5,000!) for their pilgrimage trip. Orders for poinsettias will be taken starting in November. We rely on and appreciate your support! Thank you!

Food Drive for Interfaith Humanitarian Sanctum (IHS). Our children will be creating, in their RE classes, one-day meal packets families of patients at UVA who come from far away for care and cannot afford food or housing while they are here. We need particular food items to make the packets: one one-gallon zip lock plastic bags, napkins, plastic spoons and forks, instant oats, instant grits, breakfast bars, granola bars – the healthy kind, Minute Maid vitamin fortified 100% orange juice boxes or other 100% fruit juice boxes, single serving boxed milk, 5 oz. cans mixed fruit in light syrup with a flip top lid, single serving packets of peanuts, other nuts or crackers, Minute Rice single serving Microwavable rice, especially Spanish Rice (healthier), Chef Boyardee single serving (8.75 oz.) Microwaveable meals, Hormel single serving microwavable meals, Healthy Choice single serving microwavable meals and soups, Campbell’s soup to go, single serving and microwavable, other food items, not cookies or candies, that you think would be a good addition to a meal pack for one person for one day. Please place donations in the wooden box in the Edgewood Lane hallway.

Sign up for our new electronic weekly Religious Education newsletter that has highlights and information about what is happening in our Children and Youth Religious Education program. You do not need to have children in the program to be added to the mailing list. To add you name, contact Leia Durland-Jones at leiadj@embarqmail.com.